The Medical College of Wisconsin announced Thursday it has received a $37.8 million gift from the family of Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern and the Kern Family Foundation — the largest philanthropic gift in the school’s history.

The gift is the most recent in a series of large donations from the family of the Kerns, who founded Generac Power Systems, a maker of portable generators in Waukesha, and their foundation.

The $37.8 million gift to the Medical College will establish the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education, which will be known as the Kern Institute.

As part of the initiative, the Medical College and six other medical schools will establish the National Transformation Network to collaborate and share ideas on new approaches to medical education.

“This network brings together the strengths of our respective medical schools to identify and compel educational innovations into practice,” John Raymond Sr., a physician and president and chief executive officer of the Medical College, said at an event Thursday.

“The investment making this all possible is the single largest gift from an individual or family in MCW’s history," Raymond said. "It’s a transformational opportunity for MCW, for our partners and for American medical education. And it also is an inspirational demonstration of the power of philanthropy in support of medical education.”

The other founding partners of the National Transformation Network are Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Mayo Clinic School of Medicine, University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine, University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

The seven schools have been meeting since 2013.

The Kern Foundation realized in the past year that it was time to build on those informal meetings.

“We strongly believe that this collaboration provides a unique opportunity for us to have a lasting impact on medical education, securing quality and compassionate care for all of us,” said Jim Rahn, president of the Kern Family Foundation.

Rahn praised Raymond for his ability to embrace change.

The Medical College’s new campuses in Green Bay and central Wisconsin — and its collaboration with other colleges and universities — are an example.

The new campuses are designed to train doctors who want to practice in smaller cities and rural areas and who are interested in primary care, general surgery and psychiatry. The Medical College opened the campuses to help lessen the shortage of physicians in rural parts of the state.

In addition to the gift from the Kern family and the Kern Family Foundation, Steven Roell, chair of the Medical College’s board of trustees, and his wife, Shelagh, provided a gift to establish the Steven and Shelagh Roell Endowed Chair of the Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education.

Cheryl Maurana, a senior associate dean, professor of population health and founding director of the Kern Institute, has been named as the inaugural holder of the Stephen and Shelagh Roell Endowed Chair.

"We are in the very, very early stages," Maurana said.

The Kern Institute's work, though, will include developing new curricula and testing new models for medical education.

The total initial investment in the Kern Institute is $52.5 million and includes contributions from the Medical College, the partner medical schools in the National Transformation Network and other gifts.

The Kerns and the Kern Family Foundation have given a total of $100 million to the Mayo Clinic, including a $67.3 million donation in 2013, as well as substantial gifts to Marquette University, the Milwaukee School of Engineering and the Medical College.

The Kerns, who founded Generac in 1959, set up the Kern Family Foundation in 1998 after selling a division of the company. They added to the foundation in 2006 when they sold Generac to CCMP Capital Advisors, a private equity firm in New York, in a transaction reportedly worth more than $1 billion.

In 2007, they gave a personal gift of $15 million to Marquette's College of Engineering to help fund construction of a new engineering building. In 2009, they gave $10 million to the Medical College, which, at the time, also was the largest, single gift in the school’s history.

And in 2010, a gift from the Kerns largely financed a $30 million parking structure topped with an athletic field at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The athletic field was an extension of the sports and exercise facilities at the school’s Kern Center.

The $67.3 million donation to the Mayo Clinic — which was preceded by other gifts, including one for $20 million — established the Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery.

The center does research on the most efficient medical practices for patient care.